Tuesday, June 25, 2013

First Evidence That Musical Training Affects Brain Development In Young Children

Sep. 20, 2006 — Researchers
have found the first evidence that young children who take music lessons
show different brain development and improved memory over the course of
a year compared to children who do not receive musical training.

The findings, published 20 September 2006 in the online
edition of the journal Brain [1], show that not only do the brains of
musically-trained children respond to music in a different way to those
of the untrained children, but also that the training improves their
memory as well. After one year the musically trained children performed
better in a memory test that is correlated with general intelligence
skills such as literacy, verbal memory, visiospatial processing,
mathematics and IQ.
The Canadian-based researchers reached these conclusions after
measuring changes in brain responses to sounds in children aged between
four and six. Over the period of a year they took four measurements in
two groups of children -- those taking Suzuki music lessons and those
taking no musical training outside school -- and found developmental
changes over periods as short as four months. While previous studies
have shown that older children given music lessons had greater
improvements in IQ scores than children given drama lessons, this is the
first study to identify these effects in brain-based measurements in
young children.

Dr Laurel Trainor, Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience and
Behaviour at McMaster University and Director of the McMaster Institute
for Music and the Mind, said: "This is the first study to show that
brain responses in young, musically trained and untrained children
change differently over the course of a year. These changes are likely
to be related to the cognitive benefit that is seen with musical
training." Prof Trainor led the study with Dr Takako Fujioka, a
scientist at Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute.

The research team designed their study to investigate (1) how
auditory responses in children matured over the period of a year, (2)
whether responses to meaningful sounds, such as musical tones, matured
differently than responses to noises, and (3) how musical training
affected normal brain development in young children.

At the beginning of the study, six of the children (five boys, one
girl) had just started to attend a Suzuki music school; the other six
children (four boys, two girls) had no music lessons outside school.

The researchers chose children being trained by the Suzuki method for
several reasons: it ensured the children were all trained in the same
way, were not selected for training according to their initial musical
talent and had similar support from their families. In addition, because
there was no early training in reading music, the Suzuki method
provided the researchers with a good model of how training in auditory,
sensory and motor activities induces changes in the cortex of the brain.
Brain activity was measured by magnetoencephalography (MEG) while the
children listened to two types of sounds: a violin tone and a white
noise burst. MEG is a non-invasive brain scanning technology that
measures the magnetic fields outside the head that are associated with
the electrical fields generated when groups of neurons (nerve cells)
fire in synchrony.
When a sound is heard, the brain processes the
information from the ears in a series of stages. MEG provides
millisecond-by-millisecond information that tracks these stages of
processing; the stages show up as positive or negative deflections (or
peaks), called components, in the MEG waveform. Earlier peaks tend to
reflect sensory processing and later peaks, perceptual or cognitive
processing.
The researchers recorded the measurements four times during the year,
and during the first and fourth session the children also completed a
music test (in which they were asked to discriminate between same and
different harmonies, rhythms and melodies) and a digit span memory test
(in which they had to listen to a series of numbers, remember them and
repeat them back to the experimenter).
Analysis of the MEG responses showed that across all children, larger
responses were seen to the violin tones than to the white noise,
indicating that more cortical resources were put to processing
meaningful sounds. In addition, the time that it took for the brain to
respond to the sounds (the latency of certain MEG components) decreased
over the year. This means that as children matured, the electrical
conduction between neurons in their brains worked faster.

Of most interest, the Suzuki children showed a greater change over
the year in response to violin tones in an MEG component (N250m) related
to attention and sound discrimination than did the children not taking
music lessons.

Analysis of the music tasks showed greater improvement over the year
in melody, harmony and rhythm processing in the children studying music
compared to those not studying music. General memory capacity also
improved more in the children studying music than in those not studying
music.

Prof Trainor said: "That the children studying music for a year
improved in musical listening skills more than children not studying
music is perhaps not very surprising. On the other hand, it is very
interesting that the children taking music lessons improved more over
the year on general memory skills that are correlated with non-musical
abilities such as literacy, verbal memory, visiospatial processing,
mathematics and IQ than did the children not taking lessons. The
finding of very rapid maturation of the N250m component to violin sounds
in children taking music lessons fits with their large improvement on
the memory test. It suggests that musical training is having an effect
on how the brain gets wired for general cognitive functioning related to
memory and attention."
Dr Fujioka added: "Previous work has shown assignment to musical
training is associated with improvements in IQ in school-aged children.
Our work explores how musical training affects the way in which the
brain develops. It is clear that music is good for children's cognitive
development and that music should be part of the pre-school and primary
school curriculum."
The next phase of the study will look at the benefits of musical training in older adults.

Oxford University Press (2006, September 20). First Evidence That Musical Training Affects Brain Development In Young Children. ScienceDaily.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

These request are for funds for our Mustang Caring For School And Community Program (MCSC).
Here is information about the program. Statistical facts are an important tool to this program.

In order to
participate in a band program the children are required to purchase
an instrument, buy a uniform, provide many entry fees, pay for
accompanists, and pay for transportation and other expenses for trips
and outings. Parents bear the burden of most of these costs.

Our band has
many underprivileged children that require donated instruments and
partial or full financial help with entry fees to such events as
State competitions and the end of the year parade and competition at
Universal Studios Orlando. Our award winning, first place Steel Drum
program is funded almost completely with monies raised by the band
and boosters.

As a whole, our
community is doing well, with an average income of approximately
$42,000/year, and with higher-than-average home ownership. The TOTAL
Percentage of our residents living in poverty is only 15
percent, which is a fairly low number.

About 20 percent
of the City of Eustis’ population of 18,600 residents is student
age.

Right here at
our school we have a student population of approximately 1,050
students, which is a large student body. About 28% of the total
Eustis student population is at our school, Eustis Middle.

36 percent of our students are
minorities.

51 percent of the total student
population qualify for and receive free or reduced lunch

Reading and math proficiency is
10-20 percent lower at our school than the statewide average.

Our fine school
rates well on FCAT scoring, ranking 72 out of 100, and our school
consistently earns an A rating, something of which we are very proud

The numbers show
that Eustis High School ranks 50 out of 100 on the FCAT exam. We feel
that we can help to raise that number by at least 25% percent on the
FCAT standardized exam at the high school if we continue to improve
our music education program here in the middle school level.

We know that
Eustis High School has a 77% graduation rate, something to be proud
of! The graduation rate is high among other cities, but we feel that
it could be, and would be, improved upon with improvements to our
music program.

Research proves
that the long term benefits of a strong music education program can
help to raise the graduation rates to 94% and beyond.

Currently, only
about 17% of our high school graduates continue on to earn a higher
education degree, with only 5 percent earning graduate or higher
degrees. This is a number that our program aims to change.

However, among
those with a long-term music education, 80% are likely to go on to
earn a masters degree or better. In addition, statistics show that
of people with a doctorate degree, 80% are well trained in at least
one musical instrument. Truly, the statistics show the benefits of a
music education!

The Eustis
Middle School band averages about 150 total students. Our students
are positive role models in the school and in the community, and we
are working to develop a program called The Mustangs Caring for
School Community (MCSC). The program is designed to create a caring
school environment characterized by kind and supportive relationships
and collaboration among students from the Mustang Band, staff, and
parents. The MCSC model is consistent with research-based practices
for increasing student achievement as well as the theoretical and
empirical literature supporting the benefits of a caring classroom
community in meeting students' needs for emotional and physical
safety, supportive relationships, autonomy, and sense of competence.

By creating a
caring school community, our program seeks to promote pro-social
values, increase academic motivation and achievement, and prevent
drug use, violence, and delinquency. MCSC has four components
designed to be implemented over the course of the school year:

Meeting the
community: Throughout the year the Eustis Mustang Middle
School Band competes in many fairs, festivals and shows. After each
performance the members of the band participate with other students
in a question and answer session. During this time our students
explain all the benefits they receive during their time with the
band program. The members of the band each explain how the band has
helped them become better students, friends, and how the confidence
gained through the music program helps them to become better human
beings.

Class Meeting Lessons:
This provides students in the Mustang Band with a forum to spend
time with local elementary school students in a classroom climate.
During the time spent in the classroom our students will share their
experiences and explain why the time they spend with the band is not
only good for social awareness but more importantly, how being
involved with the arts can improve test results. Our students want
to show the younger elementary students that learning notation when
reading music equates to reading and understanding fractions. Often
times, mastering the use of fractions is a problem for students of
mathematics. Understanding and having familiarity with using
fractions is one of the keys to understanding and being able to do
higher mathematics. Understanding how to use and manipulate
fractions is a consistent problem for English Language Learners, so
learning music and musical notation as a tool has been proven to
raise levels of mathematical comprehension.

Community Outreach:
Community Outreach is an important tool that the members of The
Mustang Band currently use and will continue to build upon. During
the school year the Eustis Middle School Mustang Band plays music
around our community many times, including at local street
festivals, holiday parades and nearby elementary schools. But, we
want to take our Community Outreach a step further. Our Community
Outreach Program will reach the children who are not always exposed
to the fact that children at 10, 12, and 14 years of age can
actually learn to play an instrument. We want to reach those
children who did not know they had the option to join the band,
despite financial constraints. Our program will bring our Jazz Band
and our Steel Drum Band to a community day camp or after school
program twice per year. During this event the members of the
band will reach out to children who are underprivileged and live in
disadvantaged settings, letting them know about our instrument
donation program. These children are not aware that, thanks to
fund-raising efforts, they could also join the band due to the fact
that entry fees, instruments and uniforms because the entry fees and
uniforms can in fact be donated for their use. Many of these
children need something inspirational and fulfilling in their lives,
and without our help, many of these children may never know that
they too could play a steel drum or saxophone.

Real World Experience: Once
per year we will invite the thirty most needy students from the
elementary schools in our jurisdiction based upon grades or poor
attendance to our School. We will invite them to a free event
hosted by the Mustang Band in the band room where the students
will get a chance to see in person the Eustis Mustang Steel Drum
Band and The Eustis Mustang Jazz Ensemble. After the concert
the students from the surrounding schools will be able to interact
with the instruments, the band members and the director. The
students will be able to ask questions, and our hope is that the
experience will lead to these students wanting to participate and
learn an instrument, thereby improving on both their attendance and
grades. After this event the booster committee will talk about
the possibility that these children can try something fun and
interesting and make a commitment to the band. The committee
will then distribute information to the children about our
instrument donation program, which these students would not have
known about, but for having participated in this Real World
Experience. Given the statistics for our community above, we feel
that this portion of our program will contribute the most to the
students in our community. It has been shown that children exposed
to a long term music education program are 85 percent more likely to
come to school each day, and learning becomes easier for those
students.

Mustang/Panther Connection: Statistics prove that younger students
who are active in a long term music program become better college
students. We are therefore implementing The EMMA Award! A
$500.00 scholarship that will be presented to a student graduating
Eustis High School with a GPA of 3.5 or above and who has been an
active participant in the Mustang/Panther band program, grades 6th
through 12th. This will be presented by the Eustis Mustang Music
Association, bringing full circle our commitment to give back to the
community through our MSCS program.
We will give the EMS and EHS band
students the opportunity to vote on the final applicants.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Music Education Can Help Children Improve Reading Skills

Mar. 16, 2009— Children exposed to a multi-year program of music tuition involving training in increasingly complex rhythmic, tonal, and practical skills display superior cognitive performance in reading skills compared with their non-musically trained peers, according to a study published in the journalPsychology of Music.

According to authors Joseph M Piro and Camilo Ortiz from Long Island University, USA, data from this study will help to clarify the role of music study on cognition and shed light on the question of the potential of music to enhance school performance in language and literacy.

Studying children the two US elementary schools, one of which routinely trained children in music and one that did not, Piro and Ortiz aimed to investigate the hypothesis that children who have received keyboard instruction as part of a music curriculum increasing in difficulty over successive years would demonstrate significantly better performance on measures of vocabulary and verbal sequencing than students who did not receive keyboard instruction.

Several studies have reported positive associations between music education and increased abilities in non-musical (eg, linguistic, mathematical, and spatial) domains in children. The authors say there are similarities in the way that individuals interpret music and language and “because neural response to music is a widely distributed system within the brain…. it would not be unreasonable to expect that some processing networks for music and language behaviors, namely reading, located in both hemispheres of the brain would overlap.”

The aim of this study was to look at two specific reading subskills – vocabulary and verbal sequencing – which, according to the authors, are “are cornerstone components in the continuum of literacy development and a window into the subsequent successful acquisition of proficient reading and language skills such as decoding and reading comprehension.”

Using a quasi-experimental design, the investigators selected second-grade children from two school sites located in the same geographic vicinity and with similar demographic characteristics, to ensure the two groups of children were as similar as possible apart from their music experience.

Children in the intervention school (n=46) studied piano formally for a period of three consecutive years as part of a comprehensive instructional intervention program. Children attending the control school (n=57) received no formal musical training on any musical instrument and had never taken music lessons as part of their general school curriculum or in private study. Both schools followed comprehensive balanced literacy programs that integrate skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening.

All participants were individually tested to assess their reading skills at the start and close of a standard 10-month school year using the Structure of Intellect (SOI) measure.

Results analyzed at the end of the year showed that the music-learning group had significantly better vocabulary and verbal sequencing scores than did the non-music-learning control group. This finding, conclude the authors, provides evidence to support the increasingly common practice of “educators incorporating a variety of approaches, including music, in their teaching practice in continuing efforts to improve reading achievement in children”.

However, further interpretation of the results revealed some complexity within the overall outcomes. An interesting observation was that when the study began, the music-learning group had already experienced two years of piano lessons yet their reading scores were nearly identical to the control group at the start of the experiment.

So, ask the authors, “If the children receiving piano instruction already had two years of music involvement, why did they not significantly outscore the musically naïve students on both measures at the outset?” Addressing previous findings showing that music instruction has been demonstrated to exert cortical changes in certain cognitive areas such as spatial-temporal performance fairly quickly, Piro and Ortiz propose three factors to explain the lack of evidence of early benefit for music in the present study.

First, children were tested for their baseline reading skills at the beginning of the school year, after an extended holiday period. Perhaps the absence of any music instruction during a lengthy summer recess may have reversed any earlier temporary cortical reorganization experienced by students in the music group, a finding reported in other related research. Another explanation could be that the duration of music study required to improve reading and associated skills is fairly long, so the initial two years were not sufficient.

A third explanation involves the specific developmental time period during which children were receiving the tuition. During the course of their third year of music lessons, the music-learning group was in second grade and approaching the age of seven. There is evidence that there are significant spurts of brain growth and gray matter distribution around this developmental period and, coupled with the increased complexity of the study matter in this year, brain changes that promote reading skills may have been more likely to accrue at this time than in the earlier two years.

“All of this adds a compelling layer of meaning to the experimental outcomes, perhaps signaling that decisions on ‘when’ to teach are at least as important as ‘what’ to teach when probing differential neural pathways and investigating their associative cognitive substrates,” note the authors.

“Study of how music may also assist cognitive development will help education practitioners go beyond the sometimes hazy and ill-defined ‘music makes you smarter’ claims and provide careful and credible instructional approaches that use the rich and complex conceptual structure of music and its transfer to other cognitive areas,” they conclude.

Eustis Middle School Band

Friday, June 14, 2013

The Eustis Middle School Mustang Band has been granted by
United In Praise this 2013-2014 school year. United in Praise is a
community choir with a passion to share God's love through praise &
worship performances. United in Praise has typically supported 2-3
charities each year. For more information on United In Praise please go
to their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/unitedinpraise.

This
month The Charity Selection Committee invited local charities to make
an oral presentation to the board of directors. Following these
presentations, the committee finalizes its evaluations and selects the
charities that United in Praise will support during the concert season.
There were many local charities represented. There is a large need for
help in our city, county and state. The Eustis Mustang Band presented
statistical facts that prove reaching young children with a long term
music program will strengthen our communities future.

This music
group is made of 150 students, all excellent role models who mostly
continue their music education at the Eustis High School. Both programs
are extremely strict with high personal life teaching lessons and large
rewards.

This year The Eustis Mustang Band was inspired to create
a community outreach program. The Mustang Caring for School and
Community (MCSC) was created in order to bring the city closer to our
program and to inspire and aid more children who can not afford to
purchase a new instrument to become musicians. The main goal is to raise
test scores and therefore higher education degree holders in Lake
County.

This band of 12-15 year olds are unique in they have an
award winning Jazz Group and Steel Drum Ensemble. The uniqueness of the
program is the ability to reach students that are not normally affected
by conventional learning methods. Research proves that students in a
program like the one at Eustis Middle School has the potential to raise
attendance rates by 70 percent and other cities and states have raised
their graduation rates up to 94 percent after adding a long term music
program to their schools.

Monday, June 17, 2013

The 8th graders of Eustis Middle School blazed a trail to the top
of the list in Lake County, topping all other middle schools in
every category! EMS was tops in the county amongst the 9
middle schools with a percentage of 57%. That was not only tops in
the county,
but was also above the state average. By the way, EMS was the only
school to be above the state average at the 3.5 level!

How Do We Know If Participating In Our Band Program Helped With This?

We Have About 125 students.

Well over ten percent of the school

belong to our band program.

What else can be done? We need even more children to complete our program because learning music notation makes learning easier.

About 20 percent
of the City of Eustis’ population of 18,600 residents is student
age.

Right here at
our school we have a student population of approximately 1,050
students, which is a large student body. About 28% of the total
Eustis student population is at our school, Eustis Middle.

36 percent of our students are
minorities.

51 percent of the total student
population qualify for and receive free or reduced lunch

Math proficiency is
10-20 percent lower at our school than the statewide average.

Our fine school
rates well on FCAT scoring, ranking 72 out of 100, and our school
consistently earns an A rating, something of which we are very proud

The numbers show
that Eustis High School ranks 50 out of 100 on the FCAT exam.

We feel
that we can help to raise that number by at least 25% percent on the
FCAT standardized exam at the high school if we continue to improve
our music education program here in the middle school level.

We know that
Eustis High School has a 77% graduation rate, something to be proud
of! The graduation rate is high among other cities, but we feel that
it could be, and would be, improved upon with improvements to our
music program.

Research proves
that the long term benefits of a strong music education program can
help to raise the graduation rates to 94% and beyond.

Currently, only
about 17% of our high school graduates continue on to earn a higher
education degree, with only 5 percent earning graduate or higher
degrees. This is a number that our program aims to change.

However, among
those with a long-term music education, 80% are likely to go on to
earn a masters degree or better. In addition, statistics show that
of people with a doctorate degree, 80% are well trained in at least
one musical instrument. Truly, the statistics show the benefits of a
music education!

Congratulations Eighth Graders! Move on up to The Eustis High School Panthers and keep up on that learning!

You guys are the next leaders, teachers and community of our tomorrow!

Saturday, June 15, 2013

The Eustis Music Association is driven by a passion to promote music education. The Foundation's
mission is supported and accomplished through raising money for music
scholarships, donating musical instruments and products to the
under-privileged, and donating the use of music instruments to the music
education community.
Lots of families have used musical instruments that their children have
outgrown or simply no longer use, and they are just taking up space. Now you can give another child the joy of music and
a tax deduction."From the minute a child is taught how to play an instrument, he's
no longer poor. He becomes a child in progress, heading for a
professional level, who'll later become a citizen" - Maestro Jose Abreu, founder of El Sistema music program.

Allowing for the advantage of re-testing, the results of the study
revealed that there is
significant improvement for underprivileged children in the the
following areas:

Receptive and expressive Language

Letter ID

Puzzle assembly

Numeracy in the areas of verbal counting, and estimation magnitudes

Fluid and quantitative reasoning

Critical thinking

Research has proven this over and over again. Although the results could not conclusively say that music training
by itself is responsible for the increase in these areas of cognitive
thinking for underprivileged children, it does support the hypothesis
that music can be highly effective as a means to an end, the end being
improved cognitive function and increased IQ.What the studies show is that the small group and one-on-one
interactions with teachers provided increased opportunities for
attention training and training in social interaction, both of which are
listed as lacking in school aged children in surveys conducted amongst
teachers by the Pew Research Group.In an age where the forms of stimulation commonly craved
by underprivileged children can be counterproductive to positive thought
and interaction, music provides an outlet to stimulate healthy
cognitive and expressive development. Music can also reinforce positive
social interactions and provide much needed opportunities for attention
span development. It is becoming more evident that music and social development for all children (especially underprivileged children) go hand in hand.

So please ask your guidance counselor at the beginning of the school year to make sure you have band class in your schedule. This works best if you do all of this during open house. Right before school opens. Please keep a watch and I will post a reminder as well as the date!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

LOCAL SPONSORS ARE NEEDED!

We are trying to fund our local scholorship program that The Mustang Music Association calls The MSP

(Mustang Scholarship Program).

This program funds the following

Any Needed Shirts or Uniforms

Any Needed Books

Instrumental loans

Instrument Repair Fund

Universal Parade Bus and Ticket

Summer Band Camp Program

Our goal if to raise $5,000 during this 2013-2014 school year to fund this program. This program has been implemented in our Mustang Family for a long time now. BUT The Mustang Music Association is doing more and more to make sure funding is there when needed.

If your family or small business is interested in supporting the band please see the sponsorship form below.

Currently,
in order to participate in the band program, students are required to
purchase or
rent an instrument, buy a uniform, provide entry fees for
competitions and absorb the transportation cost for these trips.

Most of the funds have to be provided by the parents.

Our
goal through community support is to help offset some of these
expenses and to provide those students with the greatest financial
needs the opportunity to be able to participate in our school’s
music program through scholarships. Boys and girls who are active in
the arts, especially in a music program, are shown to maintain higher
GPA’s, are more likely to complete a higher level of education and
in turn give back to their community.

Donating
to the Eustis Mustang Band Program

is an investment in our future!

Please
become an EMS Music Education Partner today.

Blue
level and above donations will be recognized in BOTH the Eustis
Middle School and Eustis
High School Band literature throughout the coming school year.

Friday, June 7, 2013

Vote On A Summer Community Yard-sale.

We are in the need a new banner this
year. This banner is used in every parade or festival. We use it at
every concert or event we hold. Our banner is very dull and does not
represent our school pride with the bright colors we need. This new poll is asking if anyone would like to be a part of a community yard sale. This does not just mean the time. There are other things that we can do together! Proceeds going to the new banner.

Extra funds will be put directly into our BAND BANQUET FUNDS! This means less monies for all of our families to spend for that end of the year banquet!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Thank you to our entire

Eustis Mustang Band family!

Please use the share buttons located on the bottom of this page to let your family and friends know about this generous program!

It was in the middle of the year that I got up and with my hands waving in the air and in my normal hyper behavior I mentioned we needed to have a definite community outreach program.

But WHAT and HOW do we do it.

I remember parents making so many suggestions that it was hard to digest.

It is clear in my mind that Mr. Garcia, Anna's husband suggested a group camp. He said that if we were to do a concert at this venue we could inspire over 100 children that are at this camp because they are all underprivileged.

That was in the infancy of the Mustang Caring for School and Community Program.

The program matured as months went by and we made suggestions at every meeting.

Than it grew up into a program that will benefit our community for years to come!

Thanks to us ALL coming together and letting our voices be heard!

A child benefits a great deal when they are in a long term music program!

On 6-3-2013 a few of our band family members met at The First Baptist Church to meet with United In Praise Board Members.

The presentation went so well.

We had a beginning presentation with short introduction.

David DiMassino first explained how the program that Mr. Ricke has worked hard develop benefited his daughters. Mr. DiMassino has a current 7th grade student and a former student who is a senior at the high school. Than he gave the statistical facts about our county, the school population, and the hard facts about students that do not participate in a music program. These statistics will be available in another blog during our corporation grant process this summer so please look for that.

Than Teri Ern gave an inspiring story about her daughter who is a current 7th grade student and how on bad days she can play music and it makes her feel better. Afterwards Mrs. Ern listed the reasons that a long term music education program can effect young children and their learning.

Kenneth Purvee followed with the reason integrating arts into school is so important. He told the board that he and other children often think band is a period in school that is fun, talking and an easy "A" in school. BUT by the second or third day they do not come to class with anything on their mind other than music. He also stated that music education makes him a better student and he knows it opens doors to college later.

Darian DiMassino came up after and using her wonderful stage presence helped make the point that children that go through the program have the skills to be more mature and ready to do what it takes in school than others in her piers. She also mentioned that she has the same friends she met in the first days of the 6th grade.

Once Darian was finished I explained the four components of our program. In each component is a separate cause however they all wrap around the band getting more children in our band. And that means especially the children who can not afford an instrument.

A question section followed and during that we were taught some ideas. There is always a place to learn. I will write a new blog page explaining some of the ideas we can do as a band family.

It was not only speakers who took part of this. Lauren DiMassino and Marcus Nix were both there to show the different sections of our band.We had Association Members, Parents, Intermediate Band, Advanced Band, Steel Drum and Jazz Band students representing us!

Please find information on the United In Praise here at this link. It is something that everyone should read. Because you might just find yourself interested in joining! https://www.facebook.com/unitedinpraise

We did learn of some other community programs that are in the need of help. Many local food pantries. So in the year 2013-2014 the Eustis Mustang Music Association will organize a food drive twice per year. Probably before spring break and before Christmas break. But this is something we will vote on this August 12th at our first meeting!